Heretofore, an apparatus has been provided for implanting geophones into the earth for the detection of seismic waves. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,838,379 dated Jun. 13, 1989 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,007,031 dated Apr. 9, 1991 show manually actuated geophone implanting tools. Normally, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,007,031 a hole is first dug in the earth to receive the geophone at a predetermined location. Then, after properly inserting the geophone within the hole, a spike on the geophone is manually driven into the bottom of the hole for anchoring the geophone. It is time consuming to first dig the holes for the geophones and then to position and anchor the geophones within the holes manually by hammering the geophones into the holes.
It is difficult to obtain manually the precise level and alignment of the geophone when implanted in the earth in order to obtain accurate measurements of the seismic activity. It is desirable in most instances that the geophones be positioned along an accurate vertical axis regardless of the slope of the earth surface. To obtain such an accurate positioning with manual tools is time consuming, and such manual tools sometimes result in a possible error in the desired alignment and positioning.